Just as the muddy waves surged over the embankment and raced toward Zhenyang City, the dazed woman swaying amid the spray and mist of the Zhenshui River seemed to wake suddenly from a dream and cried out:
"Fan, no!"
Her cry came through the boiling roar of the waves, no longer entirely clear. Yet when the frenzied deity heard that faint cry, it was as though someone had poured a ladle of ice water over his head, instantly cooling his impulsive mind.
The maddened supernatural being came to his senses at once.
The soldiers and civilians atop Zhenyang's walls saw it clearly: by the narrowest margin, the rushing floodwaters, already nearly licking the heels of those fleeing, abruptly halted their charge, then withdrew in an instant like an ebbing tide! The elderly and infirm villagers, who had already felt the fierce moisture against the backs of their heads, escaped death and scrambled into Zhenyang City.
Yet although they were saved, the crest a short distance from the Zhenshui River's bank, which had seized the young man in its suction, still surged as fiercely as before. Like a ravenous beast, it would not rest until it had devoured the prey before it.
Seeing this, Miss Peng pleaded again:
"Fan, spare that young Daoist."
"No!"
This plea met with a flat refusal. Fan Chuan said bitterly:
"Runlan, you don't understand. For hundreds of years, no one has harmed so much as a hair on my head. Who would have thought that in just two days, that stinking Daoist would dare wound me twice?"
"That alone would be bad enough. Worse still, that little ox-nosed Daoist ignored who came first and dared jump ahead of me, ruining our plans! Lan, don't stop me. Let me smash that brat half to death first!"
While